Moichido, anata no egao o mitai desu
by demonicanimegeek
Summary: Set after Saya enters her hibernation, while her twin nieces are growing up. Complete. Title translates to Once Again I Want to See Your Smiling Face


Disclaimer: I do not own Blood+, even if Hagi is awesome…

From the distance, he watched. On rooftops, in crowds, in the shadows, he was there watching over them.

He watched as they grew up. Protected and raised by their uncle, they never called Kai father. Kai tried to get them to call him father when they were young, but they preferred to call him Kai. He watched as the two worried their uncle, adding gray hairs to his crop of red. He saw Kai taking more pictures than necessary on the girls' first day of school, and the girls eagerly disappearing into the building, holding hands. At lunch, playing games with the other children, but never leaving each other's side. Helping their uncle out at the restaurant after school, up to their elbows in soapsuds washing dishes. The customers loved to see the young girls playing while their father worked, and every regular customer knew their names. The twin with blue eyes would eagerly chat the ear off of a willing customer while her sister hid shyly behind her. He saw them whispering to each other late at night across their room until they fell asleep.

He saw Kai trade in his bike for a small car, to take the girls to the beach on the weekends. He saw them sitting in the sand, enjoying each other's company, in her favorite spot. On occasion joined by a tall blonde man with his wife and son. He saw the girls teasing the younger boy, and Julia watching over the children. David and Kai reminiscing over past battles, enjoying the peace they had both earned.

He watched as the girls were taken to the hospital each week, for blood transfusions. Kept in separate sterile rooms, to prevent any fatal blood mixture. Julia comforting each girl, getting them used to having blood transfusions they will need their entire lives. The two girls comparing band aids after the procedure, Kai warning them to never touch each other's blood. Going to get ice cream afterwards and driving by the sea. At night they would light candles on the small family alter to honor their grandfather and father. Kai showed the girls a photo album, with pictures of their father, aunt, and himself as children. The girls laughed at Kai's apparent aging. He saw Kai's eyes grow distant when the girls asked him why there were no pictures of their father as an adult.

He noticed the girls began to get along in school better, no longer completely absorbed in their own world. He watched as they timidly reached out to other people, until they gradually learned to play with children their own age. While they did play with them, they never left each other's side, always putting distance between them and their peers.

He saw the girls turn ten, leaving the single digits forever, almost done with childhood. He saw the girls have their first big fight, dividing their room into two halves, and their tearful apologies a few days later. He watched as their different personalities and interests emerged. Adding a few more gray hairs to Kai's head with the stubbornness children acquire. Doing homework after school, one tutoring the other in math, the other tutoring the other in reading. He saw the girls establish their separate identities with different hairstyles. The red-eyed twin leaving hers long past her shoulders, the blue-eyed twin cropping hers pixie short. In the afternoons Kai would take them outside to toss around the baseball his father left behind. Occasionally David and Julia's son would join them.

The girls turned thirteen, leaving childhood behind for early adolescence. He watched them argue with their uncle just to be difficult, and then make amends later. Their personalities diverged even more, and each girl got her own room. He watched as they began to make other friends and get involved at school. Now they went to go visit Julia after school by themselves for their frequent blood transfusions. As the girls were getting older, he noticed that their curiosity about their origins grew. They often pestered Kai for information about their father and their mother. Kai's eyes would grow sad and he would promise them he would tell them when they were older. The girls were not sure how much longer they could wait.

He would overhear Kai and David talking. Discussing Julia's latest research, and the gradual reappearance of chiroptera. As the girls turned fourteen, David pressured Kai to tell the girls everything, and let them join Red Shield to fight the chiroptera and save human lives. Every time he watched Kai refuse David, saying they deserved to live a normal life. David would argue, and then always left, threatening Kai that he would tell the girls when they turned eighteen, and let them decide for themselves.

The girls began to take on more work in the restaurant. The shy red-eyed twin would help Kai with the cooking, while the more social blue-eyed twin took orders. They would often help out after doing their homework, and work until closing time. Kai began urging the girls to think about what they wanted to do in life, to give them a peaceful goal to cling to when David eventually would suggest working for Red Shield. When both girls asked to take self-defense classes, Kai refused to let them, he did not want the girls to be exposed to any violence and he did not want them to discover their inhuman abilities. Their uncle wanted to shelter his nieces and protect them from the cruel truth, even if he knew they would eventually learn what they were. They had four more years until their reality was shattered, their uncle wanted to let them be as normal as possible in that small amount of time. Their aunt had not had enough time until the struggle with the chiroptera had consumed her life.

The girls turned fifteen, and he still watched over them. He watched as the blue-eyed twin began dating human boys until Kai forbade her from doing so, while her sister became absorbed in athletics. Kai continued to worry about them. The girls began to walk to and from school each day with their friends, rather than let Kai continue to drop them off. He watched both twins appeal for permission to get a motorcycle license, since Kai could not afford to buy both twins a car. Even he had been amused by the look on Kai's face when the girls had brought up the subject.

The girls had to go to Julia for more blood transfusions as they got older. David continued to pressure Kai, saying that it would be best if the girls heard the news from their father figure. Kai argued that there was still time, and that the girls should at least be able to complete high school like normal kids. David's son was graduating high school that year; he had moved up several grade levels. He planned to go into college and study medicine like his mother. He had been told about the chiroptera a few years ago, and was helping his mother in her research. They were looking for a cure for the nucleotide in the queen's blood that made them chiroptera. It was long, tedious research, but Julia hoped to eventually have a cure for future queens and chevaliers.

All throughout the years, he rarely left their side, except for one day each year. On that one day, Kai would take the girls to the Otonashi family grave where they would eat lunch and leave flowers for their aunt, father, and grandfather. Kai would tell the girls stories then on this one day of their aunt, and how she and her friend had helped save humans from terrible monsters and how they would be able to meet her one day. The girls always believed that the stories were exaggerations, but soon enough they would learn the truth. Even as they shared this private family time, he would watch over them, until it came time for Kai and the girls to head home.

As the girls would head down the long steps with Kai, he would linger at the site, to reminisce and be near the woman that he loved. When the sun began to set he would lay a single rose on the graveside, with a purple ribbon tied on it. As he would lay the rose down, he would see the scars on his once normal arm, now the arm of a chiroptera, where it had been destroyed on that last day he had seen Saya so long ago. Before he left, he would break the silence that he was in all year, "Soon Saya you will awaken and return to us, and when you do, I will make sure you smile again, like you did when I found you in Okinawa" he would promise.


End file.
